Two Visits to Julien Pinon, 2024
Was it in June this year that I visited Les Déronnières with Julien Pinon? I recall the skies were cloudy yet bright, the vines a vibrant and youthful green, their new leaves whispering in the breeze, the only sound in a deserted (save for Julien and me, obviously) vineyard. The vines were preparing to reveal the potential of the vintage, each one waving multiple bunches of flower buds, every cluster portending an imminent efflorescence.
Or was it in October that I trekked up the slope onto the plateau to find Julien in Les Déronnières? I recall the weather was cool but thankfully dry (for a few hours, anyway), and the vines were alive with pickers, a number of whom were prepared for impending rain, handsomely equipped in wet weather gear. The hod carriers – usually four, but just two were required here this year, a reflection of the site’s paltry yield in 2024 – delivered their cargo of freshly cut bunches to the sorting table with great regularity.
So which was it, June or October?
Of course it was both.
After a period of tumultuous transition, three years after the passing of his father François, it is clear Julien Pinon (pictured below, in Les Déronnières, his map to the Pinon parcels in hand) has now found his feet. I decided to call on Julien twice this year, starting in June, primarily to hear how he was getting on after three years in charge at the domaine, but also so that we could visit Les Déronnières together (part of a task I have set myself to visit all the appellation’s most significant terroirs – see my recent report on a visit to Domaine des Aubuisières for another, in that case I walked around Les Girardières with Charles Lesaffre). Then in October I visited in order to check out the harvest and take an overview of the work in the cellars at this busy time of year.
